It was established that all pet hamsters in the world are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young babies in Syria in 1930.
The hamster species had been named way back in 1839 when also a single hamster was found in Syria near the city of Aleppo. Apparently hamsters have since then not been seen by scientist for nearly a century.
Fortunately selective breeding has up to now produced several colour varieties.